We sat down with Jason Schwartzman who co-wrote and stars in the new film The Darjeeling Limited, in theaters nationwide today. If you haven't seen it and aren't familiar with Rushmore, make sure you see them both.

Jason Schwartzman: What is your shirt, Sun Records, thats Memphis right? Man Memphis had some great music.

Bobby: Yeah in the 50s you had Sun Records, 60s you had Stacks Records, now you have all the rap and stuff.

JS: Its so amazing!

B:Yeah Memphis is cool. Cool place to be right now.

Cole: Craig Brewer, baby!! I love Hustle and Flow.

JS: Oh me too. Now you guys are from Austin? You live here? How old are you?

Cole: Yes, we go to UT. Im 19 and hes 20.

JS: How much do you just love it?

C&B:Its amazing.

JS: I know its just amazing right! Thats where I would have gone to college. When I was trying to get into schools, that was the one I really wanted to go to. I wish I would have had more time but I fucked it up, or actually I got fucked over, these people just really fucked it all up. I got fucked. Youre so lucky.

C: Yeah its really awesome. This guy went to UT, too! (I point to his escort.)

JS: Ugh Im so jealous. Cant I go back? Can I go? I want to go.

C&B: Oh, oh yeah. For sure.

JS: What would I do there?

C: Just go to school, go to film school. Do you know John Pierson?

JS: No.

C: He sold Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Michael Moores and a bunch of other big directors first films.

JS: What do you mean, sold them?

C: He basically worked as the go-between guy for the director and the studios.

JS: No way!

B: Oh yeah.

C: He wrote a fantastic book about a decade ago. Ill send you a copy! I can get John to sign it.

JS: That sounds great! Whats it called?

C: Spike Mike Slackers and Dykes.

B: Whats the dyke?

Escort: Its referencing Working Girls.

C: But yeah he teaches a class at UT, and you could basically just go to film school.

JS: Id love to do that.

C: So first of all, thanks so much for being here.

JS: Oh no. Thank you. I might have pulled a fast one onthe powers that be by getting me down here, because I really just wanted to come hang out, because I love Austin so much. So I was like hey is there any chance that I could make it down to Austin to do some stuff and they were like yeah we were going to do some stuff there, you think you could make it? and I was like oh, oh yeah. I think I could do that ya know like trying to play it off. I even made it so that I could have three days here, Ive had one day in every other city all across America, but I was like why dont I come Saturday and stay until Monday because its like my favorite place in the world. So when you say thank you for being here, its really thank YOU for coming here and welcoming me, I mean this is my dream. I love being here. So thank you.

C: With Rushmore, which is one of my favorite films of all time, you worked with Wes Anderson, and I guess its been about ten years now, but did you want to get back with him to write Darjeeling?

JS: Well since Rushmore, weve been best friends, and I think, yeah, I met him when I auditioned for the movie, and I didnt think I was going to get to be in the movie, but my first thought when I met him was this guy, could be, I mean I just wish I could be this guys friend. And when I did end up getting the part, we did end up becoming like best friends, and over the years, I never wanted to say like Oh, can we work together again? and I really cant believe its been ten years since weve worked together. But it was actually Wes who brought it up, he said I want to make a movie about three brothers on a train in India and I want you to be one of the brothers. The writing part actually came later, and he said, when I actually said we should write this movie together. I never expected to be acting, I never expected to be working like this. So when a guy like Wes says something like that to you, its, I dont take it lightly. Its like Oh shit and my heart kinda explodes.

C: So how does it feel to have written such a good movie. I mean that you wrote such a good Wes Anderson movie. You look at what he did prior to this with Life Aquatic, which wasnt that good and definitely not on par with Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums and see that you helped raise it back up to that level.

JS: I hope its at that level. I mean I feel like, we just wanted to make the best movie we could..and write the story. But its a little awkward, I watch the movie and Im just like Is it good? like I cant tell because Im so close to it. But its like, I know Im proud of it, ya know. I know that when we set out, when Wes sat down to write this movie we didnt know what it was gonna be. But the one thing we did know is that we wanted to make it personal. Like you know how my character in the movie writes these short stories about things that have happened to him? Well thats basically what this movie is, its a script we wrote about all this stuff thats happened to us in our lives. And when Wes said it he was like lets write it, lets go to India and write it in India, and lets make it real. So everything you see in the movie is based on something real. And um, I know when I watch the movie that people can like it or not like it, but we accomplished our goal, to write something something as personal as we could, so that makes me feel good.

Other Interviewer: Yeah I was going to ask a question, just following that, about India. Was there a particular inspiration or reason you made this in India.

JS: Yeah, yeah! That was the one thing that Wes had in the initial conceit: I want to make a movie about three brothers in India. Hes always wanted to make a movie in India, hes just fascinated with India for many reasons. For one thing, theres an Indian filmmaker named Satyajit Ray, and um, hes seen all of his movies, and loves all of his movies, and that filmmaker is the reason that Wes directs movies ever in the first place, so hes always been a fan of India, if you can be a fan, but hes always wanted to go to India. So when he went there and got to India, he said I am going to make a movie here, and it ends up helping for the western traveler or tourist its considered like this spiritual place, which it is, but it has the mystique of being like this place thats great for Owens character who wants to have a spiritual journey.

B: So the short film you shot with Natalie Portman (Hotel Chevalierm), did you always intend to make that, or did you go back after

JS: No we made it a year before. Well Wes wrote it, when Wes first wrote it it wasnt supposed to be a part of the movie at all, it was just supposed to be this short movie based on this short script he had written and he was like I want to make it with you and Natalie Portman and then, which I was like Okay!

C: even more tempting with Natalie Portman naked

JS: (laughter) Yeah! So there were basically like a couple, umm, days after he read it to me, when he called me and said You know what the character in this should be the same one in the feature film and I thought that was great but we didnt know how we could make it make sense as the main story happens in India. We knew we didnt want to do a flashback, because we were doing it all as a flashback already, so we thought why dont we just do it as a prologue. Its a short movie and its a companion piece, and its a companion piece and itll be the same character and it really lets you know where my character is coming from and what hes going through. Then we had a slight dilemma and we didnt know how we were going to show it, so we put it on iTunes, and you download it there and the idea is youre supposed to watch it before you see the feature film because it gives you a lot of information and ideas about my character, it gives you some clues I guess. But now, because weve gotten..the idea was always that we were going to put it on iTunes and eventually put it on the main movie so next week itll start showing with the movie. I think itll play, the credits will roll and the lights will come up and everyone will touch on how much they loved it, no Im just kidding, and then the main movie will play.

C: That sounds like a good plan.

JS: Yeah I think thats the best way to do it.

C: So did you bring Roman Coppola on to do this? I know I watched the special features on the Marie Antoinette dvd and he had filmed a lot of that.

JS: Oh really?! Awesome that you watched that. He is like the secret weapon. He filmedwell first of all he wrote the movie with us and he produced the movie, and he shot a lot of it. Its a little bit of a drag how awesomely talented he is, its ugh, ridiculous. He can write, produce, he invents shit. First of all, he patented a magic trick, hes an inventor. For this movie he invented these new ways of mounting the camera onto the ceilings and shit. A little bit of a boy genious.

Other Interviewer: If I could just ask you this.

NR: This will be the last question.

Other Interviewer: Oh! I didnt mean to tie you up.

JS: No, no, no! I love it.

Other Interviewer: You do music, you do acting, you do the writing. Who are your influences for creativity?

JS: You mean with my life? Creativity in my life?

Other Interviewer: Well since youre doing all three, sometimes people just act.

JS: Oh. Well, it always just seemed like, you see at a young age I fell in love with music. Movies just seemed like, we would just go see movies as a kid. Im just not the type of person who could go see a movie and be like Yeah, thats me, I can do this. Im gonna go do this. Like, especially in L.A. theres always like kid actors and shit. I get my hair cut and like, you know, on the mirror where youre getting your hair cut theres these headshots of little kids in the mirror and theyre like that. A) they just seem real handsome and B) they just seem like really cocky, aggressive kids. I was always more shy and insecure, and just like didnt have the personality to be like Thats me with the guns fucking slung and shit.

Other Interviewer: Okay, well

JS: But who I could relate to were musicians cus they seemed like not that way. They seemed like themselves, and sincere. So I got a drum set when I was a kid and I fell in love with music like Nirvana and all those bands were coming out and I was like wow so I was getting into music. I would just listen to Beatles music, I was much more like a headphone kid. But when I was 16 I saw The Graduate and it made me feel for the first time how music made me feel, I was like Whoa.. All the movies I had seen up until then were like either old, old movies I had watched with my mom which at that point I hadnt developed a taste for or I just loved comedies. But I had never seen a drama like that, like a movie like The Graduate and I just waswell I didnt like think I could be an actor, and I didnt know if Id be a successful musician or what, but I just thought that whatever I did with my life I had to make people, well not people, but I could maybe have this feeling. I knew I wouldnt be crunching numbers. You know I didnt think doing a tax form for someone was going to make me feel warm and fuzzy, so I knew I had to do something more along the creative lines probably. So I was always more interested in just like musicians and actors and stuff.

C&B:Well thanks a lot! We really appreciate it.

JS: Was that alright?

C&B:Yeah it was awesome. Could we get a picure?

JS: Oh yeah of course.